Considering the experience of Sikhs in America.

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Of racism, the victim and the perpetrator within

Sikh Americans continue to reflect about racial inequity after Saturday’s not-guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial in the murder of Trayvon Martin. Simran Jeet Singh discusses means of racial oppression and the dichotomous way such oppression operates within each of us — as both victim and perpetrator:

The reality is that the global society is complicit in structural discrimination, and we have all become actors in that process. Sure in some way we are all Trayvon Martin. Each of us has had our humanity compromised by the current power structure. Each of us have been dehumanized, just like Trayvon.

On the other hand, we all regularly participate in a system that protects a select few, and we all play roles that contribute to the denigration of others.